1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking apparatus capable of locking and unlocking a door with a mechanical operation using a key and an electrical operation using biometric information such as a fingerprint.
2. Description of Related Art
An example of a locking apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-70382. FIG. 8 is a front view partly showing the exterior side of a door 103 on which the locking apparatus of the disclosure is installed.
The locking apparatus includes an electronic lock 101 and a cylinder lock 102. The locks 101 and 102 are independent of each other and separately lock and unlock the door 103. The lock 101 has a housing 105 fixed to the door 103. The housing 105 has a chamber 109 that is opened and closed with a lid 107 and contains a fingerprint reader. The lock 101 receives electric power from a battery or a DC source.
A person who wants to open the door 103 opens the lid 107 and sets a finger on the fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader reads a fingerprint from the finger, and a fingerprint verifier verifies the read fingerprint by comparing it with registered fingerprint data. If the fingerprint verification authenticates the person, the door 103 is electrically unlocked.
The cylinder lock 102 has a key cylinder 111 fixed to the door 103. A key is inserted into the key cylinder 111 to mechanically lock or unlock the door 103.
In this way, the related art provides the door 103 with the electronic lock 101 and cylinder lock 102. Usually, the electronic lock 101 is used because it easily locks and unlocks the door 103. If the user intends not to use the electronic lock 101, or if power supply is cut, or if the fingerprint reader or fingerprint verifier breaks, the cylinder lock 102 can be used to lock and unlock the door 103. The user can optionally choose the cylinder lock 102 that uses a key to lock and unlock the door 103 or the electronic lock 101 that uses no key to do the same.
The related art has a problem that the door 103 will not be unlocked with the electronic key 101 if the door 103 is locked with the cylinder lock 102 and if the key for the cylinder lock 102 is lost thereafter.
The related art has another problem that it involves many parts and needs time and labor to install it on the door 103 because it employs the two separate lock mechanisms, i.e., the electronic lock 101 and cylinder lock 102.